Mark Oakley

Mark W. Oakley is an established litigation attorney concentrating on civil litigation, personal injury, construction law, and criminal and traffic defense. He also advises business clients, negotiates and drafts contracts, and handles a variety of litigation matters at all levels of the state and federal court systems. Mr. Oakley is trained and certified in the collaborative practice of law. Mr. Oakley is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law (J.D. 1987), and the University of Maryland, College Park (B.A. 1984). He is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Bar Association of Montgomery County. He is admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Authored the winning brief in the case of 1986 Mercedes v. State of Maryland, a precedent-setting decision limiting the State’s power to forfeit private property.

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• Contingent Fees
  I handle personal injury claims on a contingent fee basis, meaning if there is no recovery, you do not owe me a legal fee.

District of Columbia

District of Columbia Bar

Since 1989

Maryland

Since 1988

University of Maryland - Baltimore

J.D. (1987) | Law

1984 - 1987

University of Maryland - College Park

B.A. (1984) | English

1980 - 1984

District of Columbia Bar

Member

1989 - Current

Maryland State Bar Association

Member

1988 - Current

Bar Association of Montgomery County

Member

1988 - Current

Q. Am I responsible for my deceased spouse's debts in Maryland?

July 10, 2025

A: You would not be contractually liable for debts incurred only in her name. Any breach of contract claims for her unpaid debts would have to be filed against her estate within 6 months of her death. If there were no estate assets, then the claims cannot be paid. However, a creditor might try and argue that a debt was incurred to benefit you and your wife jointly, and that your wife was acting as your agreed agent in incurring the debt that accrued to your benefit, such as a home improvement that increased the value of a property that was in you and your wife’s joint names. In that scenario, the party owed for work and services performed on your home would have a claim against you for the fair value of the benefits you received, on a theory of unjust enrichment (where the law holds that it would be unjust for you to keep the benefits of another’s work, materials and labor without fair compensation). ... Read More

Q. Company car merged into my lane causing accident: Who's at fault?

July 10, 2025

A: The way you describe it, you believe it is the other driver. But —if I’m reading your description correctly— you also say you were in a right-turn-only lane and didn’t turn right, but continued straight into a second right-turn-only lane, at which point the other driver attempted his merge into that turn lane.

Could it be that the other driver assumed you were turning right from the first right-turn-only lane so that the second right turn lane would be clear for him to merge into?

Maryland law generally holds that a driver has the right to assume that other drivers on the road will obey clear traffic rules like red lights, stop signs, lane divides, and possibly that cars in a right-turn-only lane will, in fact, turn right as required by the lane markers and signs.

Is it clear at that location that cars in the first right-turn-only lane may continue straight into the next turn lane and not actually turn at the first turn? Should the other driver have used greater caution and looked to see that your vehicle was still continuing straight and therefore was in the lane he was merging into? It is possible to argue the facts both ways.

Maryland follows the doctrine of “contributory negligence,” which bars recovery to a person if their negligence, however small in comparison to another’s negligence, contributes to the happening of an accident. So even if you or the other driver was just 1% at fault, neither could recover against the other for the accident.

In order to prevail, you will have to win on the law—whether you retained the legal right to drive through the end of first right-turn-only lane without turning and continue into the second, and therefore maintained your exclusive right-of-way in the second turn lane. I do not know if there is a published court of appeals opinion on that specific scenario. You will need to pay a lawyer to conduct the research. Or just handle the repairs through your insurance carrier. ... Read More

Q. Arrested for DUI in Maryland after refusing sobriety tests. What are my options?

July 6, 2025

A: The test refusal triggers an automatic suspension but you can request a hearing to challenge the probable cause for asking you to take the test. You have very little time to request the hearing by filing a timely request with the MVA and paying the ALJ hearing fee. Alternatively, you can elect the ignition interlock for one year. Separately, you have a trial in court. The best option is to hire a lawyer. Refusal of all field sobriety tests does help your defense at trial as it deprives the officer of most of his objective grounds for gathering probable cause to support your arrest for DUI; however, that usually causes the officer to exaggerate his visual observations of you as practically falling down drunk. Hire a lawyer. ... Read More